Page 43 of Ends of Being

I have no idea what the main purpose of this warehouse is, but from what I’ve seen so far, none of it’s good. And shockingly, it smells like bleach. I can’t say that I’ve been in many cold, dark warehouses that smelled like bleach. It’s disturbing.

We enter an expansive room which seems to be in the far recesses of the building, and I see someone standing in the very center of the room.

The screaming hits my ears before my eyes land on the body, and it’s enough to make the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

After a few hasty strides into the room, I see Lilith standing in front of a man who is strung up from the ceiling by his bound hands. Her back is to me, but I recognize her blonde hair and slight build, and a coldness trickles down my spine as I take in the scene.

She’s wearing all white—or I assume it used to be white—and she’s barefoot.

I turn and look behind me at Matt and Tony, who are staring wide-eyed at the scene before them. I step further into the room and clear my throat, so she’ll know I’m there.

She turns to me, the frigid look on her face immediately blooming into one of excitement, and she smiles at me, her eyes alight as she gushes, “Oh, Darius! So happy you could join us!”

This fucking woman.

I almost don’t have words to properly describe Lilith in all her glory, but I’m not entirely convinced that she’s crazy. Or, at least, I can’t think of any one mental condition to use as a label for how wonderfully deranged she comes off. And then, there’s the other side of her which is so lovely that you basically feel like you have to be on guard all the time because you can see how she may stop in the middle of a congenial conversation and slit your throat.

She wouldn’t hesitate, and she would smile the entire time.

I glance behind me again, and I see Tony checking her out. I roll my eyes at the glint of admiration on his face, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he was getting a hard-on standing in the middle of a bloodbath. I snake a hand out and smack him. His gaze shifts to me, and I give him a look that says to cut his shit. He just shrugs at me and smirks.

I turn back to Lilith and ask, “Did you find out anything?”

She claps her bloody hands together, blood spattering a bit on what’s left of the white on her shirt. “Oh, I have, indeed!”

She turns back to the man strung up from the ceiling, one of her hands gripping him by the jaw so hard her knuckles are white. She looks at me as she says, “This here is Jimmy. Jimmy didn’t have as much to say as the one before him, but he did have more to say than the two before that.”

I can’t help but raise my eyebrows at her. “Math isn’t really my strong suit, Lilith, but that makes it sound like you’ve had at least four people in here.”

She narrows her eyes a bit, then flits her gaze to the corner of the room and then back to me as she shrugs. I turn to look, and I’m surprised to see a whole pile of bodies there. I’m not sure how many at a glance, but definitely more than four.

I turn back to her, my hands settling on my hips as I say, “What the fuck, Lilith? You’re going to need a backhoe to dig a hole big enough to dispose of this mess.”

She gives me a small frown. “I don’t think we own a backhoe, but not a bad idea.”

She turns to the man sitting off in the corner, looking bored. “Mickey, do we have a backhoe?”

He shakes his head, unfazed by her question. “That’s a negative, Lils. Want me to get you one?”

She ponders the question for a moment before nodding. “Yes.” She pauses, her brow furrowing in concentration as she continues, “And a farm. We can’t have a backhoe purchase without anything to run it on, right?”

Mickey doesn’t say anything, just reaches into his pocket and pulls out a flip phone. He pushes one button, then he puts it up to his ear, and after a moment, says, “Buy a farm. And a backhoe.”

He doesn’t wait for any kind of response, just flips the phone shut and puts it back into his pocket with a nod.

Lilith beams at him, then turns back to me. “So, would you like the good news, the bad news, or the super bad news?”

I grit my teeth, then spit out, “Just give me all the fucking news, Lilith.”

“The bad news is I know who has her.” She pauses for a moment in contemplation and then continues, “Well, that wasn’t very clear. Let me start over.”

She walks over to the pile of bodies and sticks out one of her bare feet and prods the leg of one with her bare toe. “This here is Abe. At first, Abe didn’t have anything to say, but after a few twists and turns, he thought maybe he could come up with some stuff.”

She stares down at the pile of bodies, appearing to zone out as she continues to speak. “One thing I thought to be odd during my interrogations is that I didn’t recognize many of them. It’s pretty difficult to get around this city without being recognizable in one way or another to me or any of my associates. So, I thought to myself, Lils, who in this giant fucking city would have balls big enough to bring in a ghost crew, right under your nose?”

She wheels around, her eyes meeting mine, and I see they’re a little maniacal at this point. There’s nothing cheerful about the smile on her face now, then her tongue comes out, swiping over her top teeth slowly before she continues, “But now, I’m ahead of myself. Before we get into what Abe told me, I have to explain one thing about The Dead. You see, we’re going through a sort of organizational change right now.”

I open my mouth to reply, but she holds her hand up and stops me. “Save your breath, Darius. Just let me get it out, and then you’ll have your moment.”

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